GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 26 - October 2013

3. A bill to attach it to. Reid is frequently cut out of legislative maneuverings, with the White House negotiating directly with House Republicans. This Congress, which has passed just 22 bills (as of press time), simply does not provide enough opportu- nities to attach a bill. And the emergency and critical measures that do pass need to be relatively clean in order to go through. The political environment isn’t conducive to passing legislation, and the American Gaming Association (AGA) isn’t helping. The AGA is using the movie Runner Run- ner, which is loosely based on the Ultimate- Bet cheating scandal, to scare the Senate into action. Their argument is online gam- ing is so inherently evil that it needs to be outlawed, except for online poker. The argu- ment is despicable, and beneath the AGA. This was the same argument used to pass the UIGEA. And the AGA shouldn’t be stooping to that level. But more impor- tantly, the AGA knows it isn’t true. Regulators from New Jersey and Nevada went to Europe to learn how online gam- ing is regulated there. They know all online gaming can be regulated. The AGA knows all online gaming can be regulated. Yet they’re resorting to desperate scare tactics to try to get something done. Just another reason to be disgusted with the process. At the state level, things are a little better. New Jersey is scheduled to have online casinos – the full suite of games – up and operating by the end of the year. Nevada already has one online poker room oper- ating and more are in the pipeline. And Delaware is expecting to have an online casino become operational this year. Nevada, which is an online poker only state, is looking to work with other states to regu- late online poker and share player liquidity. But the outlook for online gaming beyond Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware is a bit murky. In California, the various stake- holders – Native American tribes and cardrooms – are much closer to reaching a consensus regarding online poker than they’ve ever been. But they’re not quite there yet. So it’s unlikely online poker leg- islation will pass this year, but the outlook for the next couple of years is more posi- tive. For the first time in a decade, it’s rea- sonable to expect California to pass online poker legislation sometime in the next two years. Online casinos are a nonstarter in the Golden State. There are several other states exploring the possibility of regulating online gam- ing. Florida, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa have all shown interest. But they’re still at the beginning stages of what could be a multi-year process. Remember, online gaming didn’t come to New Jersey overnight. It took a few years of work to make it happen. What does all of this mean? Online gaming will continue to expand in the United States slowly and methodi- cally. In many ways, it could resemble the slow but inexorable expansion of land- based gaming throughout the country. But don’t expect it to move at warp speed. The political climate just isn’t conducive to making that happen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vin Narayanan is the editor- in-chief of the GPWA Times Magazine and has been covering the online gambling industry for the last seven years. “The advocates for online gaming have been so ineffective and so shortsighted, I wonder if we’ll have meaningful regulated online gaming in more than a handful of states by the end of the decade.” 45 U.S. legislative roundup